Examining the Intermedia Agenda Setting Effects amid the Changsheng Vaccine Crisis: A Computational Approach.

Scholars have long questioned whether the traditional media effects approach can still be applied in the current digital media era, especially in the non-Western, state-regulated Chinese media environment. This study examines the intermedia agenda setting of traditional media sources and we-media sources in the through a computational look at the Changsheng Bio-technology vaccine (CBV) crisis. Utilizing LDA topic modeling and Granger causality analysis, results show that both traditional media and we-media (i.e., online news sources operated by individuals or collectives) focus more consistently on two frames, the and the frames. Interestingly, the traditional media agenda impacts the we-media agenda under the and the frames, while the we-media agenda influences the traditional media agenda under the and frames. Overall, our study demonstrates the mutual effects between the traditional media agenda and the we-media agenda. This study sheds light on the theoretical meaning of network agenda setting and extends its application to social media platforms in Eastern countries and health-related fields.